Trump to the United Nations: America First, Deal With It

President Donald Trump addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

On Tuesday, President Trump delivered his second address to the United Nations since he took office and, much like the first one, he pulled no punches.

There was nothing artful about Trump’s speech. Obama’s addresses were always filled with inspiration and flowery prose about the nations working together to bring peace and prosperity to the planet. He often spoke about reforming America’s image on the global scene and using our Super Power status to redistribute wealth and resources.

Unsurprisingly, Trump’s talk at the United Nations was the complete and utter opposite of anything they’d been hearing from the previous administration.

It was not pretty, but it was absolutely pointed.

Trump very cleverly began his speech by laying out America’s progress, getting what might only be described as a sneering laugh from the assembly when he claimed that his administration has already accomplished more than any administration in the history of the country.

“Didn’t expect that reaction but…that’s okay,” retorted Trump before moving on to tout America’s booming economy. The President made a point to talk about border security and progress on a border wall, ending his opening comments with a not-so-subtle breakdown of America’s increased military spending and it’s expansion.

“Our military will soon be more powerful than it has ever been before. In other words, the United States is stronger, safer and a richer country than it was when I assumed office less than two years ago”.

Having laid out all the reasons another free state might want to remain friendly with the world’s lone Super Power, Trump went on to lay out his plan shoring up America’s sovereignty line by line. Effectively, it was a surgical removal of every Obama-era policy in international relations.

It was tough talk, but the very type of talk he was elected to bring to the international scene.

-Obama’s Iran deal was a disaster and the United States will no longer accept such a one-sided effort when it comes to bringing peace to the region.

“The Iran deal was a windfall for Iran’s leaders. In the years since the deal was reached Iran’s military budget increased by nearly 40%. The dictatorship used the funds to build missiles and fund havoc and slaughter.”

-Obama doesn’t work here anymore. This is the #MAGA era.

“America’s policy of principled realism will not be held hostage to old dogmas”.

-Fair trade will happen whether the UN likes it or not.

“We have racked up 13 trillion dollars in trade deficits over the last decade. But those days are over. We will no longer tolerate such abuse. We will not allow our workers to be victimized”.

-The United States does not and will not ever recognize the authority of the International Criminal Courts and, as an unelected, foreign body they hold no jurisdiction over American citizens.

“As far as America is concerned the ICC has no authority and no jurisdiction”.

“America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism”.

-The United States will no longer be held hostage to foreign energy and is willing to exploit its own vast resources for its own uses.

“In America we believe strongly in energy security for ourselves and our allies. We have become the largest energy producer anywhere on the face of the earth.”

-OPEC nations doing shady business will no longer be tolerated and we haven’t forgotten that we’re giving them military protection for free while they keep screwing us with rising oil prices. Oh, and they’re going to start covering some costs.

“OPEC and OPEC nations are as usual ripping off the rest of the world and I don’t like it. Nobody should like it. We defend many of these nations for nothing and then they take advantage of us by giving us high oil prices. Not good. We want them to stop raising prices, and they must contribute substantially to military protection from now on.”

-Socialism sucks and we’re coming for the Venezuelan gangsters currently starving out their own people.

“All nations of the world should resist socialism and the misery it brings”.

-We’re done being your ATM machine. From now on our foreign aid goes to people who are on our side.

“The United States is the world’s largest giver of foreign aide, but few give anything to us…We will examine what is working, what is not working and whether the countries who receive our dollars and our protection also have our interests at heart. Moving forward we will only be giving our foreign dollars to those who respect us and frankly are our friends.”

“We expect other countries to pay their fair share for the cost of their defense.”

-Everyone else needs to step up with UN funding.

“The United States will not pay more than 25% of the UN peacekeeping budget”.

Trump had a lot to say but it wouldn’t be oversimplifying at all to summarize his entire speech in two words:

America first.

Anyone who still has questions about how we could elect “LITERALLY HITLER” need only look to this speech to understand why. While Obama spent year after year in front of the UN blaming Americans for everything wrong in the world, Trump was reminding them of all the good the United States has done. He reminded nations that have taken our wealth and generosity for granted that we are not obligated to fund their savagery or entertain their notions of “global government”. Trump – in effect – has laid out a business plan for other nations to either follow along with or get cut out of the deal altogether. That plan is basically this:

America will continue to fight for freedom and prosperity across the globe, but American interests must and always will come first…without apology.

My feelings about the 2016 election aside, I must admit it is a welcome relief to see a president give the diplomatic middle finger to the most corrupt body of international legislators known to mankind.

Watch the whole speech here. President Trump’s remarks begin at about the 1:38:00 mark. If you have some extra time it’s kind of fun to watch the other leaders who came before him and contrast and compare their “climate change/gender politics business-as-usual” diatribes with Trump’s concise, blunt “The Buck Stops Here” talk.